Double-quantum homonuclear correlation magic angle sample spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of dipolar-coupled quadrupolar nuclei

Spin-locking and recoupling of homonuclear dipolar interaction between spin-3/2 nuclei under magic-angle sample spinning

Numerical simulations and experiments were used to examine the possibility of employing strong spin-lock fields for recoupling of homonuclear dipolar interactions between spin-3/2 quadrupolar nuclei and to compare it to the rotary-resonance recoupling at weak spin-lock fields. It was shown that strong spin-lock pulses under MAS conditions can lead to recoupling, provided that the electric-field gradient principal axes systems of the coupled nuclei are aligned and that their quadrupolar coupling constants are approximately the same. The phenomenon is based on the fact that strong spin-lock pulses induce adiabatic transfer of magnetization between the central-transition coherence and the triple-quantum coherence with equal periodicity as is the periodicity of the time-dependent dipolar coupling. Because of the synchronous variation of the state of the spin system and of the dipolar interaction, the effect of the latter on the central-transition coherence and on the triple-quantum coherence is not averaged out by sample rotation. The approach is, however, very sensitive to the relative orientation of the electric-field gradient principal axes systems and therefore less robust than the approach based on weak spin-lock pulses that satisfy rotary-resonance condition.

Three-dimensional through-bond homonuclear-heteronuclear correlation experiments for quadrupolar nuclei in solid-state NMR applied to (27)Al-O-(31)P-O-(27)Al networks

We present here the first 3D homonuclear/heteronuclear correlation experiment applied to quadrupolar nuclei and making use of the sole scalar J-coupling. This experiment, based on the 2D-Homonuclear-Heteronuclear Single Quantum Correlation (H-HSQC) experiment, uses a relayed transfer from the (27)Al central transition to neighbouring (31)P spins and to the central transition of a second (27)Al. It confirms the correlation map characterizing the two (27)Al and the (31)P NMR signatures of (27)Al-O-(31)P-O-(27)Al chemically bonded molecular motifs.

New opportunities for double rotation NMR of half-integer quadrupolar nuclei

A combined approach is presented which expands the applicability of double rotation (DOR) by overcoming its most prominent disadvantages: spinning stability and sensitivity. A new design using air-bearings for the inner rotor and a computer-assisted start-up procedure allows DOR operation over in principle unlimited time at outer rotor speeds of up to 2000Hz. Sensitivity enhancement of the DOR experiment is achieved by applying amplitude-modulated adiabatic pulses such as the double frequency sweep (DFS) before pulse excitation. Repeating the DFS enhancement and signal readout several times without allowing for spin-lattice relaxation leads to sensitivity enhancements of a factor 3 for (27)Al in various minerals. As a result, it becomes possible to study low sensitivity quadrupolar nuclei and various long duration 2D measurements can be performed routinely. Spinning is adequate to suppress residual homonuclear dipolar couplings in the spectral dimension of typical quadrupolar spin systems. In 2D-exchange spectroscopy, however, homonuclear correlation can still be established through dipolar-quadrupolar cross-terms.

Through-bond homonuclear correlation experiments in solid-state NMR applied to quadrupolar nuclei in Al–O–P–O–Al chains

Through-bond homonuclear correlation experiments can be realised in solids between spins of type X, separated by four chemical bonds, in X-O-Y-O-X motifs, provided a J coupling between X and Y exists: central transitions of quadrupolar 27Al spins can be correlated via the J2 scalar coupling between 27Al (X) and 31P (Y) in materials featuring Al-O-P-O-Al motifs.

Implementing SPAM into STMAS: a net sensitivity improvement in high-resolution NMR of quadrupolar nuclei

Gan and Kwak recently introduced two new tools for high-resolution 2D NMR methods applied to quadrupolar nuclei: double-quantum filtering in STMAS (DQF-STMAS) and the soft-pulse added mixing (SPAM) idea. Double-quantum filtering suppresses all undesired signals in the STMAS method with limited loss in sensitivity. With SPAM, all pathways are added constructively after the second hard-pulse instead of using a single pathway as previously. Here, the sensitivity, advantages and drawbacks of DQF-STMAS are compared to 3QMAS. Additionally, SPAM can be included into DQF-STMAS method, resulting in a net sensitivity gain with respect to 3QMAS of ca. 10-15.

Increasing the sensitivity of 2D high-resolution NMR methods applied to quadrupolar nuclei

Gan and Kwak recently proposed a soft-pulse added mixing (SPAM) idea in the classical two-pulse multiple-quantum magic-angle spinning scheme. In the SPAM method, a soft pi/2 pulse is added after the second hard-pulse (conversion pulse) and all coherence orders in between them are constructively used to obtain the signal. We, here, further extend this idea to distributed samples where the signal mainly results from echo pathways and that from anti-echo pathways dies out after a few t1 increments. We show that, with a combination of SPAM and collection of fewer anti-echoes, an enhancement of the signal to noise ratio by a factor of ca. 3 may be obtained over the z-filtered version. This may prove to be useful even for samples with long T2' relaxation times.

Enhancing sensitivity or resolution of homonuclear correlation experiment for half-integer quadrupolar nuclei

We have recently introduced double-quantum homonuclear correlation NMR experiment for half-integer quadrupolar nuclei in solids, which was based on rotary resonance recoupling [J. Chem. Phys. 120 (2004) 2835]. In this contribution we show on two 23Na (I=3/2) containing samples, Na2SO4 and Na2HPO4, that the efficiency of the experiment can be substantially enhanced by adding rotor assisted population transfer (RAPT) and Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) sequences to it. We also present an upgraded two-dimensional experiment, in which double- and six-quantum coherences are correlated during t1 evolution period, yielding a high-resolution isotropic spectrum along an indirectly detected dimension. The sensitivity of the upgraded experiment is, however, greatly reduced compared to the sensitivity of the original experiment, so that its application is feasible only when RAPT and CPMG can be used as well.